


Doomsday fix-it

by asarahworld



Series: The Doctor and Rose Tyler [22]
Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Episode Fix-it, Episode: s02e13 Doomsday, F/M, Timepetalsprompts, Tumblr: doctorroseprompts
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-30
Updated: 2017-07-30
Packaged: 2018-12-09 00:59:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,059
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11658315
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/asarahworld/pseuds/asarahworld
Summary: All recognizable dialogue (italicized) taken directly from ‘Doomsday’ as written by Russell T Davies.





	Doomsday fix-it

**Author's Note:**

> All recognizable dialogue (italicized) taken directly from ‘Doomsday’ as written by Russell T Davies.

“ _But it's like you said. We've all got Void stuff. Me too, because we went to that parallel world. We're all contaminated. We'll get pulled in_.”  Rose said, her brow furrowed.

“ _That's why you've got to go_.”  The Doctor looked at her.  The computer said something, but Rose wasn’t paying it any mind.  “ _Back to Pete's world. Hey, we should call it that. Pete's World. I'm opening the Void, but only on this side. You'll be safe on that side_.”

“ _And then you close it, for good_?”  Pete.  She’d forgotten that he was there.  Rose briefly wondered when her not-father was going to leave.

“ _The breach itself is soaked in Void stuff. In the end it'll close itself. And that's it. Kaput_.”  The Doctor explained.

“ _But you stay on this side_?”  Always self-sacrificing, always trying to keep her safe.  She’d told him that she was never going to leave, hoping beyond hope that he’d eventually believe her.

“ _But you'll get pulled in_.”  Mickey.  He’d ended up to be friends, of a sort, with the Doctor.  He’d grown so much over the last few years.  Rose knew that she’d miss him desperately, but she also knew that staying with the Doctor was the only thing she could do.

“ _That's why I got these.  I'll just have to hold on tight. I've been doing it all my life_.”  For a genius, the Doctor certainly could be thick.

“ _I'm supposed to go_.”  Her voice was thick with disbelief.

“ _Yeah_.”  His voice was dead.

“ _To another world, and then it gets sealed off_.”  He wasn’t going to do this her, not again.

“ _Yeah_.”

“ _Forever. That's not going to happen_.”

“ _We haven't got time to argue. The plan works. We're going. You too. All of us.”_   It was Pete.

“No,” Rose said firmly.  “Mum, you go with Pete to the other universe.  Twenty years without Dad, you have a second chance.  To get it right.  Happily ever after.”

“I’m not leaving without you,” Jackie said, affronted.

“Mum, you’ve got to.  _I've had a life with you for nineteen years, but then I met the Doctor, and all the things I've seen him do for me, for you, for all of us. For the whole stupid planet and every planet out there. He does it alone, mum. But not anymore, because now he's got me_.”  Rose turned sharply to face the Doctor.  “And don’t you dare.  Don’t you dare send me away, not again.  I’ve been remembering things, bits and pieces, from the Game Station.  You didn’t sing a song to the Daleks and they just ran away.  You died, and it was all my fault, wasn’t it?”

“Rose,” the Doctor gaped.  “We don’t have time-”

“No, Doctor, we don’t.  Tell me the truth.  I was the Bad Wolf, wasn’t I?  All the times those words appeared, it was me, wasn’t it?”  Rose pressed.

“If I say yes, will you go with Pete and Jackie?”  The Doctor asked carefully, his voice flat.

“No,” Rose said fiercely.  “Tell me the truth.  I killed you, didn’t I?”  Her face fell, her hand flew to her mouth.  “I killed you,” she said faintly.

“No, Rose, but,” he was cut off.

“No, Doctor.  Because I remember, mostly.  Jack’s not rebuilding the Earth, is he?  He’s dead.”  Rose’s voice broke.  “Jack’s dead, and I killed you.  That’s why you’re sending me away, isn’t it?  I’m too dangerous to be runnin’ about in space and time.”  She waited for him to deny it.  He didn’t.  “That settles it.  Mum, you’ve got to go.  I love you, and we had twenty years together and then I met the Doctor.  It’s like what I told you before, the last time he tried to send me away.”

Jackie opened her mouth, as if to protest, then closed it, nodding.  “Of course, sweetheart.”  She pulled her daughter in close.

“I love you, Mum,” Rose choked.

“I love you,” Jackie held her daughter a moment longer, then stepped back to Pete.  Before anyone could stop her, she’d looped two hoppers round their necks and they disappeared back to Pete’s World.

_Systems rebooted. Open access._

“ _Those coordinates over there, set them all at six. And hurry up_.”  The Doctor snipped.  She wasn’t supposed to be here.  Time was in flux, he could see new timelines opening up.

_Levers operational._

“ _That's more like it. Bit of a smile. The old team_.”  Rose grinned.

“ _Hope and Glory, Mutt and Jeff, Shiver and Shake_.”

“ _Which one's Shiver_?”

“ _Oh, I'm Shake_.”  The Doctor produced a pair of Magnaclamps.  _“Press the red button.”_ He was about to say more when a gust of wind whistled through the corridor, accompanied by a faint wheezing.  There, about two feet behind them, the TARDIS was materializing.

“I thought the TARDIS was parked in that loading area,” Rose said curiously.

“She is.”  The Doctor frowned.  “Time’s in flux,” he commented, sounding surprised.

A older man stepped out of the new TARDIS.  “Rose,” his voice was distinctly Scottish, “in the TARDIS.  Pretty Boy, shut up -” (“I didn’t say a word,” the Doctor protested.) “and allow me to fix my timeline.

“You’re me?”  The Doctor said incredulously.  “I regenerate into… _that_.”

“I’d forgotten how vain I was,” the man commented.  “Rose, please go in the TARDIS.  It’s the safest place you could possibly be.”  His face was lined, but his eyes were ancient.  Looking into them, Rose felt the same sensation as when she’d looked into the Doctor’s eyes just after he’d regenerated.

“Hello,” she said, uncertainly.  “Won’t the Reapers come?”

“Time’s in flux.  What was about to happen, what I’ve averted from happening, was _not_ a fixed point.  Which is how _he_ failed to see it coming.  Of course, I’m still changing my personal history, but,” he took Rose’s arms in his hands, “you are worth it.  Always.”

“Doctor,” Rose looked into his eyes.  “How long?”

“Too long,” was his only verbal response.  “But,” he clapped his hands together, “that’s what we’re changing isn’t it?  Exciting, I know, but Rose, you need to stay in the TARDIS.  You’ll be safe there, even if the Reapers come.  And your safety is paramount.  If anything happens to Sandshoes there, he’ll regenerate.  Not entirely certain what would happen to me after that, but that’s not important.  If anything happens to me without something happening to him, I’ll regenerate.  But you,” he kissed her forehead, “you, Rose, can not regenerate and therefore must stay in the TARDIS.”  The new Doctor made eye contact with his younger self.  “When Rose looked into the Vortex, she became the Bad Wolf.”

“I know that just as well as you do.”  The Doctor said crossly.

“Jack’s immortal.”

“I know that too,” the Doctor hissed.  “Why else did we leave him there?  A fixed point in time held _inside_ the TARDIS?”

“You know, but you don’t understand,” the Doctor said, his voice sharpened by his Scottish accent.

“Understand what?  You’ve clearly had ample time to think this over, _Doctor_.”

“Bad Wolf left herself a key, hidden in her mind, to let her out of the box we locked her in.  It was burning Rose’s mind, so we took it out of her.  But in her wake, she left the potential to change Rose’s brain chemistry, to create a fixed point in time that was constantly in flux.”  The older Doctor finished dramatically.  The Doctor blinked.  “Right now, if you look at Rose, her timeline is in flux.  Bad Wolf saw this during the events at the Game Station and manifested herself a nice little niche in the back of Rose’s mind so that she could come back.”

“We don’t have time for this, _Doctor_ ,” the Doctor snapped.  “Any minute, the Cybermen will be here and we’ve got to be ready to dump them into the Void.  It’s our only chance.”

“Quite right,” the Doctor replied.  “It’s _our_ only chance.  Not Rose’s.  And if Rose waits for us _in the TARDIS_ while we deal with the Cybermen, then we can help her.”  He looked past his younger self to Rose.  “But if you lose her to Pete’s World today, then I can’t help her.”

Rose looked from the older Doctor to her Doctor.  “He’s you.  I trust you absolutely.  I’ll wait in the TARDIS, but you had better come back and explain what’s going on.  _Both_ of you.”  She turned to walk back but stopped when the older Doctor called her name.

“In my timeline, I never had the oppor-, I never _took_ the opportunity.”

“Opportunity?  What opportunity?”

“Any of them.  There were so many times that I wanted to do this,” he broke off, placing his hands on her cheeks.  Rose looked into his eyes, knowing what he wanted to do.

“Doctor,” she whispered, closing her own eyes trustingly.

“I’ve missed you,” he said, kissing her forehead.  “Rose Tyler.  Now, TARDIS, go.”  He smiled reassuringly, before turning back to the younger Doctor.  The Doctor waited until Rose had shut the door to his TARDIS to speak.  “Before you say a word, know that I am taking full responsibility for changing my own timeline.  You know that Time is in flux, a fixed point is being altered.  Yes, it was a fixed point in time, but _not any more_.”

“How did you change it?”  The Doctor asked.

“Spoilers,” the Doctor replied, after a moment of silence.  “The Cybermen will be – ” he was cut off by a Dalek.

“Magna-clamp and lever NOW!”  The Doctor shouted urgently, his Scottish accent thick.  The younger Doctor followed suit immediately.  “Open the breach and the Void will suck up the Daleks and Cybermen.”  The older Doctor threw something to his younger self.  “Tie yourself to the clamp.  If you get sucked into the Void, it’ll cause a paradox.”

“No thanks to you.”  The Doctor gritted his teeth, tying himself up nonetheless.

“I’m changing my personal timeline, doing what _you_ ought to have done in the first place.”

“If this works, you might fade from existence,” the younger Doctor spat.  “Why would you,” he stopped, realization dawning on his face.

“This was the day I lost her.  Because of my own arrogance and thick-headedness, I didn’t think clearly enough to save Rose.  And even though she had a happy ending, a new beginning even, I am far too old and selfish not to save her if I can.”  The Doctor said quietly.  “And as for what happened after I lost her, well, I’ve no doubt that TARDIS will still take you where you need to go.  Where I needed to go,” he said, clearly briefly reminiscing of a memory.  The Doctor knotted a rope to his own magna-clamp, knowing that his lever would slip.  He’d just gotten a new regeneration cycle after all, and he didn’t fancy spending it entirely in the company of Jackie Tyler without his TARDIS.

“How long?”  The younger Doctor asked softly.  “Tell me how long it’s been since today for you.”

“I don’t know.  Twenty-four years on Darillium, two thousand years in the confession dial, nine hundred years on Trenzalore… it’s added up.”

“So why now?”

“Because it was only when I saw my wife for the last time that I realized how much I’d truly _loved_ Rose.”  The Doctor admitted.  “I say wife, only because she said husband and it became a habit.  River loved to banter, and who was I to deny her?  Not when I was all she had left, because _I_ lost her parents.”  The Doctor looked up and saw the approaching Cyber-army.  “Levers, now.”

The void opened.  Daleks and Cybermen were flying past the two Doctors.  Dalek Sec once more manages to save himself, but the Genesis Ark speeds into the void.  The Doctor knows that the lever is about to slip and tests his knots.  They hold.  He closes his eyes, then lets go of the clamp.  The lever falls.  It takes all his energy to move it upright once more, but he manages.  His rope is taut, and his arms are longer than Rose’s, and he easily reaches the lever, collapsing over it in a heap.  Just as it did for Rose in his original timeline, as soon as it locks in upright, the suction of the Void becomes much stronger.  He holds on as the Void seals, collapsing in a heap on the ground.  It’s over.  And Rose is safe.


End file.
